It is known to the art to use detergent and conditioning hair care composition, or shampoos, based essentially on surfactants, in particular of the anionic, nonionic and/or amphoteric type, and more especially of anionic surfactants, in combination with conditioning agents.
The surfactants, especially of anionic type for cleansing and washing the hair are known for the ability of removing the various kinds of soil initially present on the hair, and thus possess good washing power. However, along with this property, the surfactants may bring to the hair damages due to the aggressive nature of such a cleansing treatment, which leading to the pronounced damage to the hair, such as progressive removal of the lipids or proteins contained in or at the surface of the hair.
In order to improve the cosmetic properties of the above detergent composition, and more especially detergent compositions for application to sensitized hair, i.e., hair which is damaged or weakened, in particular through the chemical action of environmental agents and/or of hair treatments such as permanent-waving, dyeing or bleaching, it is known to introduce into these compositions conditioning agents. The main purpose of these conditioning agents is to rectify or limit the undesirable effects induced by the various treatments or types of attach to which the hair fibres are more or less repeatedly subjected to and, of course, they can also improve the cosmetic behavior of natural hair.
The conditioning agents most commonly used to date in shampoos are cationic polymers, silicones and/or silicone derivatives which impart to washed, dry or wet hair an disentangling, softness and a smoothness which are markedly enhanced in comparison to what can be obtained with corresponding cleansing compositions which do not contain them.
Moreover, it is also known to combine more than one conditioning agents in shampoos to obtain even better conditioning effect to the hair, especially to the sensitized hair. Different types of silicones and its derivatives are most commonly combined to achieve this purpose.
It has been found that, in spite of the current progress in the field of shampoos based on a combination of particularly and appropriately selected types of silicones and/or its derivatives and cationic polymers, they are not completely satisfactory. Thus there is still a need for new products displaying improved performance in respect to one or more of the cosmetic properties mentioned above.
The present invention is directed towards meeting this need.